Biography

I grew up on a small tobacco farm in eastern North Carolina with not a lot of contact with the outside world. I knew nothing about ham radio until as a high school senior I discovered a portable radio that my uncle had in the cabinet shop that he and my dad operated. It had something called SW, so being the inquisitive fellow that I was, I began tuning around and came across a strong AM signal on the 7 MHz band. This took place in 1966 when there was still some AM activity on that band. I became very interested and began researching what I had heard and discovered ham radio. As a graduation present, my parents gave me a GE portable radio with AM & FM broadcast and Short Wave bands. Quickly, I became an avid SWL and spent as much time as I could listening to SW broadcasts and what AM activity I could find on the ham bands. Upon graduation from high school, I attended a technical school for training as an automotive mechanic. I completed the training in 1967 still with much interest in radio. The Vietnam War was raging and I decided rather than my rich Uncle Sam telling me where to go, I would make the choice on my own. I entered the Coast Guard for a four-year stay. While moving from station to station on the east coast, I still maintained my interest in radio and began to study code and theory in preparation for the Novice Exam. I was at the point that I could have easily passed the Novice Exam, but there were no active hams on Ocracoke Island, NC where I was stationed at that time. While stationed there, I married my high school sweetheart, and radio took the back burner for a while. After discharge from the Coast Guard we moved back to the tobacco farm and began to dabble with Citizen’s Band Radio while pursuing my lifetime desire to be a farmer. Then in 1974, a friend introduced me to my Elmer Lincoln Bone W4SDF (SK) in Rocky Mount, NC and he told me what I needed to do. I followed his instructions and after about four weeks of study was ready for the exam. The faithful Saturday came, the test was completed (CW and written exam “passed”), and the paper work was in the mail to the FCC. It was time to start hunting equipment. I found a Hallicrafters HT-40 transmitter and Hammarlund HQ-110 receiver in Williamsburg, VA that was within the budget limitations of a new ham, of which I became the proud owner. Next step was back to Lincoln for more advice on the antenna system. I started out with and inverted vee for 80 and 40-meter Novice bands as Lincoln suggested. Then the wait was on. That was the longest six weeks I have ever spent. Finally the ticket arrived and I had received WN4PLQ as my Novice call sign. Novices were only allowed crystal control of the transmitter frequency in those days. Being rock bound with only two crystals each for the 80 and 40-meter bands was the pits. However, finally after a couple of days listening and calling CQ the first QSO came with a fellow in Minnesota. What a thrill. I was on my way, or at least I thought. During Coast Guard boot training, I had a near death (out of body) experience. It occurred after giving blood for a fellow Coast Guardsman that needed surgery after an accident. I later learned what happened to me was called a Vagal Response. When it happened, I was fully conscious and tried to communicate with the corpsmen that were moving my body from the deck where I had fallen to a hospital bed. I felt the need to tell them that I was dead, but it was OK. Then I had this sensation of sinking into darkness like I had never experienced and the last thing I remembered was my entire body suffering terrible pain. That night when I finally regained consciousness, the corpsman by my bed asked how it felt to have died and come back. He said when we got you to the hospital bed that you had no pulse or blood pressure. That was much for a 19 year old to comprehend. With the training schedule being what it was, I did not have a lot of time to dwell on what had happened. However, the incident was not forgotten. Death was not what I had been led to believe. That being when death comes it is all over. I knew from my experience that was not true. The experience I had in that darkness was not pleasant. I developed this great fear of dying and not knowing what would happen after that. I wanted to know more so I started to attend the church that I attended with my parents as a young boy. I was looking for answers. What is out there after death? I did not want to experience that pain again. The adult Sunday School teacher gave me some material to read and in this material was the story of a Savior that came to this earth with one purpose and that was to pay a debt that I owed. You see no one had to tell me that many times I had fell short of living the way that I should. This material told me that I could not live a life that would satisfy God’s requirement to enter into His rest called Heaven, no pain there. God demands perfection, total righteousness. The best that I possibly could do on my own just would not satisfy God’s requirements. However, what God demands God supplies. You see the debt that I owed was the debt of falling short of what God requires of me, which God calls “sin”. God says the debt of sin is death and that is not just physical death, but eternal death, which is suffering forever to pay for my sin. That is where Jesus, my Savior, came in. Remember I said what God requires God provides. Jesus died in my place to pay for my sin. I can have God’s forgiveness for my sin debt because of what Jesus did for me on that Old Rugged Cross. Yes not only did He die, but He rose from the dead and is in Heaven right now. God says in the Bible that if I would ask His forgiveness for my sin, confess with my mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in my heart that God raised Jesus from the dead that I would be saved. Many people find fault with the Bible and say it is not true etc. I can only tell you a story to help you see what I have discovered. The Bible is like medication prescribed by a doctor to help you recover from an illness. You can go to the doctor for a diagnosis, get a prescription, get the prescription filled by a pharmacist, then not take the medication and complain that the doctor and pharmacist did not know what they were doing. The Bible is medication for us humans and until we take it as medication we cannot make statements as to its validity. I can testify that I have taken a dose of the Bible and found it to be true. The answers to life’s questions are contained therein. The story that Jesus told in the Bible in Luke chapter 16 about a rich man and beggar man that died helped me understand the full story. The rich man was not suffering because he was rich, but because he was not known by the Lord, hence his name is not mentioned. The beggar man, Lazarus, was in heaven not because he was poor, but because he was known by the Lord. That is why the Bible gives the beggar man’s name. I have a question for you. Does the Lord Jesus know your name? If not will, you go to Him, introduce yourself, and ask His forgiveness? I have told you this story, because I have no desire for anyone to experience the pain that I felt for the short time during that near death experience and I know that with Jesus Christ as your Savior you never will. You see, there is only “one” mediator between God and man and that is the Man, Jesus Christ. As hams, we share a common interest in a great radio hobby that God has given us to enjoy. That is why I want you to know the rest of the story. I will leave you with this statement; you are not prepared to live until you have prepared to die. The Bible is God’s Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. I urge you to take a dose; you will find it great medicine for the soul. 73 and Enjoy Ham Radio especially CW, it is the Original Digital Mode.

Equipment

Yaesu FT-897D / Drake L-4B / 3 element yagi on 20 through 10 meters / Dipole on 40 meters / Double Bazooka on 75 meters / Carolina Windom 160 on 160 meters

QRP Yaesu FT-817

Colect Drake Equipment:
Drake C-Line
Drake TR-4C transceiver
Drake TR-4 transceiver
Drake TR-3 transceiver
Drake W-4 watt meter
Drake WV-4 watt meter